we do not wish it to be understood, that it was a pity it should come or that it had no legitimate right in this tiresome, selfish, worldly word of Hawaii, or the world as a whole, a unit, or that it was really not wanted or not needed. Oh, no! It did not come a minute too soon that little Violet, and no princess ever had a warmer or more royal welcome. It was indeed a “new baby” in the house, a new joy, and wee Katrina was now a “big girl.”

It has been said by some wise head that "more marry than keep good houses" and never a truer word. It takes a "good hussy" to keep clean-to wash and iron, to bake and brew, to sweep and brush, and scrub and scour and mop; to begin with a most complete wash on Monday morning and to end on Saturday night with a full cupboard of sweet, homemade bread, pies, cakes and cookies for Sunday fare; it takes a good housekeeper-yes.

It is a trifle monotonous, true, to have to be in seven places in a minute as head of the doings; to see that the corners (oh those corners!) are always clean and clear, that there is not a speck of lint under the beds (Look under those beds! Pull them out!) the windows (can't see through them!) shining, the kindling-box lined with strong brown paper (not rags and tatters), the stove black (not rusty), the silver cleaned and white, the table appointments fresh and sweet, the chairs dusted, flowers in the bowls, good wicks in the lamps, the clock ticking, the tea-kettle humming, the baby crowing, the canary singing, the boys whistling— Yes, it may be tiresome at the end of the day but does it not "pay?" Are not the children healthy and happy, the good man, the husband, contented in such a home?

What of its opposite? With quarrels and reproaches and jealousies, its fretful, crying, peevish, unkempt babies; its cornergrocery and drinking-saloon resort, its slovenly dress, its unbrushed hair, its untidy house and yard and veranda, its worse than profitless door-step gossip and idle chatting; its slopping and

shuffling and slipping of work, its miserable God-and-man-forsaken "lick and promise" (for God loves and blesses only the orderly and honest worker and man will shun and run from that kind of home (?))-its all and in all and through all-wretchedness, "hard times!"

But, Mrs. Von Splinker kept house we say. Oh yes, there is no doubt about that, and if you had ever been fortunate enough to go there you would declare it at once. It was not allowed even for one day to keep itself—to run wild as it were. Mrs. Von S. was mistress and head and foot and hand and eyes and ears(not too much tongue) wife, mother, queen, aye, and good neighbor withal, gentle, ready and helpful in any time of need. Her home was a bee-hive and a refreshment. When asked how she managed so beautifully to succeed she replied thoughtfully: "Oh, I don't know; I love my home and just keep doing."

Now we believe that what applies to a household, a "home," applies to a lane, a street, a hamlet, a village, a town, a state, kingdom, empire-applies to a boat, a brig, ship, a steamer, fleet, squadron and perhaps we might go on multiplying our examples if paper permitted, (but stationery costs be it understood and we pay our bills.)

The sun rises and sets each day, the air moves, grass grows, water runs, rain falls, waves beat and surge and Mother Nature watches over the works of her hands, and what her hands find to do is done with all her might.

Nowhere in all God's universe is this more apparent than in these Sandwich Islands. You have but to plant, to sow, to water and lo! increase springs to be harvested, from January to December. Nothing here to retard her glorious work; all nature is all alive and eager for the fray of man's industry.

Never was there a more splendid garden-plot-fairer skieslarger bows of promise-a more magnificently bejeweled firma

ment over sleeping, fault-finding, ungrateful, unprayerful, heads. “And all but the image of God is Divine.”

Murmuring men and women of Honolulu get out of your comfortable beds sometime (and often) at 3 o'clock in the morning or at 4 and repeat an orison and sing a hymn:-"The morning light is breaking, the darkness disappears, the sons of earth are waking to penitential tears, and seek the Saviour's blessing, a nation in a day."

Then, will you see how the heavens declare the glory of God at that hour in this most marvelous land. Again:-Do you imagine when we go out for a tramp we are thinking or caring for man's little lack-er work; for the few handfuls of dry goods and haberdashery. We've seen millions of it. There's nothing new in that line under the sun for us, here. It is "the True and the Beautiful" we seek in our strolls; and so far as humanity is concerned we can see it just as often and as plain in the Portuguese babies' faces or the baby face of any other race perchance as in one of our own! We will take in all creation when we go to walk or go to Mass. A black woman or any other colored is the equal of a queen if she behaves like a "woman"! We expect to take a back seat in heaven if we get there. At best it will not be a pew of our own selecting.

At last we say and then throw down the pencil for the night: Look not back at the picture of this town's housekeeping the past years. You have certainly turned over to a work of redemption and release. The flood-gates of cleanliness and order are being opened and with patient continuance in well-doing, by "keeping doing," the imps of darkness shall vanish from this would-be lovely metropolis with its sentinels of hills and its heavenly spans of bows. "I do set my bow in the clouds:"

Our Rainbow Land.

Later:-"The best way to keep a city clean is for everyone

to sweep before his own door." "When the scourge visited Canton it killed about 70,000 of the Chinese population. In the middle of the City of Canton there is an English settlement, and not a case occurred there. Here was a little community within a ring. of death, but they were never touched. Why? The settlement had good sanitation, perfect cleanliness-the conditions which secure public health. Again, none of the European doctors caught the plague."

OUR RAINBOW LAND.

A BLACKBOARD ETCHING.

"The Bible claims a place, for the superiority both of its literary qualities and of its teachings. If studied merely from a literary standpoint, it contains the choicest matter, the best laws and profoundest mysterious that were ever penned. It describes the most ancient antiquities and strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars-and all this in the purest English, and through a phraseology always simple and condensed. It teaches the best rhetorician and exercises the wisest critic." And all this is one reason, but not the best, why our children here (3 classes) use daily the "Word of Life" for one reading lesson. It is also used for dictation. The "watchword" with its date is written on the board every morning. "Line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a good deal.”

I suppose we are all willing to admit that a child who can read, write and make himself understood in two languages is apt to be more wide awake, to be cleverer than the child who can speak only his mother tongue. In this school there are now many who can, easily, make themselves understood in three. Little Chinese "Dorcas" who is but seventeen months in Makapala said to me yesterday some English words of two syllables more distinctly than any baby I ever heard. She comes to church twice every Sunday and takes care of herself walking in her little bare feet about the church peeping in at the different pews. Another baby not of two years by four months, holds his hymn-book and sings 'Amen" to the top of his voice with the children. He shoots out in roundest English: "Papa over there!" (Rev. W. Yee Bew)